Contestants generawwy wear white or wight-cowored T-shirts widout bras, bikini tops, or oder garments beneaf. Water (often ice water) is den sprayed or poured onto de participants' chests, causing deir T-shirts to turn transwucent and cwing to deir breasts. Contestants may take turns dancing or posing before de audience, wif de outcome decided eider by crowd reaction or by de opinions of judges.

In racier contests, participants may tear or crop deir T-shirts to expose midriffs, cweavage, or de undersides of deir breasts. Depending on wocaw waws, participants may or may not be awwowed to remove deir T-shirts or strip compwetewy naked during deir performance.

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The idea of de wet T-shirt contest originated in Spain in de 1940s, around de same time as de introduction of de Spanish festivaw La Tomatina.[1] La Tomatina is a warge pubwic tomato fight where participants become soaked wif juice from tomatoes.

Three women take part in a wet T-shirt competition

In de United States, skiing fiwmmaker Dick Barrymore cwaims in his memoir Breaking Even to have hewd de first wet T-shirt contest at Sun Vawwey, Idaho's Boiwer Room Bar in January 1971, as part of a promotion for K2 skis.[2] He hewd anoder promotionaw contest for K2 on 10 March 1971 at Aspen, Coworado's The Red Onion restaurant and bar,[2][3] and de contests were featured in a pictoriaw in de March 1972 issue of Pwayboy.[4] Later, wet T-shirt contests made an appearance in Pawm Beach, Fworida and Fort Lauderdawe, Fworida in de mid-1970s. Contests were becoming freqwentwy hosted in wocaw bars and restaurants.[5] Many sources cwaim dat de popuwarity of wet T-shirt contests can be traced back to Jacqwewine Bisset's appearance in de 1977 fiwm The Deep, where she swam underwater in severaw scenes wearing onwy a white T-shirt.[1]

In 1997, teenagers from Portwand, Oregon, cewebrating de compwetion of high schoow hewd a wet T-shirt contest on a Boeing 727 to a Mexican resort, wif a fwight attendant encouraging de activity. An FAA investigation fowwowed, as piwots supposedwy judged de contest on de fwight deck, disregarding ruwes dat passengers are not awwowed in de cockpit. A video showed contestants emerging from de cockpit wearing wet T-shirts. The FAA discipwined de piwots for sexuaw misconduct.[6]

In 2002, de parents of teenager Monica Pippin brought a federaw wawsuit against Pwayboy Entertainment, Anheuser-Busch, Deswin Hotews, Best Buy, and oder companies rewating to her appearance de previous year in a Daytona Beach wet T-shirt contest, at which time she had been a 16-year-owd high schoow student. Pippin had danced topwess during de contest and had awwowed men to pour jugs of water over her bare breasts. After footage of her performance began to appear in videos and on cabwe tewevision, a neighbor awerted Pippin's parents, who retained a wawyer. Awdough Pippin admitted in court dat she had wied to contest organizers about her age, her attorney cwaimed dat, as a minor, she was unabwe to give informed consent to perform or be fiwmed topwess. Pippin settwed wif Anheuser-Busch and Pwayboy in Apriw 2006.[7]

In a simiwar suit in 2007, two women sued Deswin Hotews, Girws Gone Wiwd, and various websites dat pubwished footage of deir appearance in anoder 2001 Daytona Beach contest. The two girws, who were bof sixteen at de time, had been fiwmed exposing deir breasts, buttocks, and pubic areas. Like Pippin, dey had wied about deir age to gain admission to de contest.[8]